One
month after their colleague Rodrigo Neto was gunned down on the street
after eating at a popular outdoor barbecue restaurant, the journalists of Vale do Aço, Brazil, were indignant. Denouncing
a sluggish investigation and the possibility of police involvement in the
murder, they strapped black bands to their wrists in a sign of solidarity, put
on T-shirts bearing Neto's name, and took to the streets to demand justice. Six
days later, Walgney Assis Carvalho, a photographer who claimed to have
knowledge of the crime, was shot twice in the back by a masked assassin as he
sat at a fish restaurant. The journalists of Vale do Aço are still indignant, but now they are terrified.

Gerardo Ortega's news and
talk show on DWAR in Puerto Princesa, Philippines, went off as usual on the
morning of January 24, 2011. Ortega, like many radio journalists in the
Philippines, was outspoken about government corruption, particularly as it
concerned local mining issues. His show over, Ortega left the studios and
headed to a local clothing store to do some shopping. There, he was shot in the
back of the head. His murder underlines the characteristics and security
challenges common to many of the killings documented as part of CPJ's new Impunity
Index: A well-known local journalist whose daily routines were easily
tracked, Ortega had been followed and killed by a hired gunman. He had been
threatened many times before in response to his tough political commentary, a
pattern that shows up time and again on CPJ's Impunity Index.